”30 Days of Night”Finally got around to seeing this and I have to say I did enjoy it. It was gruesome but not for gores sake. It had a very good premise and the make up was fantastic and it generally did a good job in making me very watching-through-the-bunched-up-arm-hole-of-my-bathrobe frightened.
My only major grip is that once again the powers that be show their hand far too early. I like my things-that-go-bump-in-the-night to be mysterious. Once they are seen fully, and speak the effect gets lost. This is why “The Blair Witch Project” was so effective. Is it me or does the head vampire look a lot like Leyland Palmer from "Twin Peaks"?
Also the fact they walk around hissing like cats for no other reason than to show the viewer they are animalistic does make me chuckle. Very Buffy season 1. Overall a good effort though
B-
”Across the Universe”Oh I wanted to love this so much. I really did. I was so excited about the prospects and even some of the scathing reviews did not put me off.
Then after twenty minutes I knew this would not be the masterpiece I so badly wanted it to be.
Seriously there were like seventeen Beatle’s songs crammed into twenty minutes. By the end of the film it seem like the entire back catalogue had been covered but unfortunately no real story. Bono shows up, Eddie Izzard, Joe Cocker and others and I was just wondering why.
Do not get me wrong, there was some good. Director Julie Taymor creates some of the most tantalizing eye candy seen in quiet some time, and the set design and costumes are fantastic, it is just that when you have a musical the numbers should be out of this worldSome of the musical numbers were fantastic, ‘Come Together’ come immediately to mind. See for yourself. But this did not cover up the fact that there was nothing else here aside from a really cool gimmick.
C
”Enchanted”I wanted to love this as well. BOOOOOO to my expectations. Susan Sarandon you are so disappointing to me. How could you, yes YOU not be able to conjure up something remotely resembling evil???
Sure the script and the songs were a heap of fun, and the musical number did bring an old fashioned smile to my face but I was expecting so much more. I wanted to become a kid again and instead I ended up a mildly disappointed adult watching a kids film by themselves.
However James Marsden as wiped his dull performance as Cyclops out of my mind with his fearlessly silly performance as Prince Edward. And EVERYTHING you have heard about Amy Adams in this is true, she is sensational. Not Oscar-tastic mind you but she was able to be shrill and plucky without being grating. She walked a very fine line and managed to not only make it out unscathed, but amazingly she has made it out a star.
B-
”The Assasination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford” Andrew Dominik has crafted one of the most beautiful and thought provoking studies on celebrity to grace the silver screen (or is it technicolour now?). This is also one of the most beautiful films of the year to look at, and those who have compared the film making style to Terrence Malick would not be wrong. However the film does meander a bit in getting to the punch, and a few extra trims in the editing room would not have gone amiss.
Bob Ford is infatuated with Jesse in a slightly uncomfortable homoerotic way that makes the view very uneasy watching this youngster voice his love to his icon. He does not understand the difference between the person standing before him and the fantasy of his he has in his head.
James both exploits this and is unnerved by it. He humiliates Ford not because he is a bully, but because this is what his celebrity ask of him. Why does James keep him around? Bob Ford is a constant reminder of just how famous he has become
Pitt is wonderful in the role, but is blown out of the water by Affleck as Ford. He plays Robert as both likeable and creepy, you are never comfortable when he is on the screen. He is a clingy pathetic creature, yet you feel for him. He reminds you of that part of you that idolizes celebrities yourself.B
No comments:
Post a Comment